Zijn er in het Nederlands echt zoveel onregelmatige werkwoorden? Een pleidooi tegen de discriminatie van sterke werkwoorden

This contribution discusses the problem of the allegedly ‘irregular’ strong verbs in Dutch, being a plea for correct terminological use in grammar. Strong verbs belong to the basic vocabulary of Dutch, being mostly verbs that concern everyday life such as eating, sleeping and walking. They have a regular structure and the label ‘irregular’ makes the average second language learner automatically think ‘oh, this must be difficult’. First, this contribution examines how Dutch linguists have looked at strong verbs over the centuries. Then, the presentation of strong verbs in recent linguistic and pedagogical works will be discussed to come finally to a conclusion and to some proposals.